George Gallup

Dr George H. Gallup Sr is the Patron of the School of Thinking.

George Gallup said, “What the School of Thinking is doing to teach people to think for themselves may be THE most important thing going on in the world today.”

He was Michael Hewitt-Gleeson’s mentor and helped with the design of cognetics by impressing upon him the need to measure or notice the CVS (the Current View of the Situation) as a basis for moving to the BVS (the Better View of the Situation).

Dr. Gallup’s work stands as one of the first great examples of the practical application of the new field of cognitive science. Among the founders of cognitive science, the work of Gallup, along with that of de Bono and others, may be condsidered fundamental as we evolve into the future with computers.

The late Dr Gallup founded the Gallup Poll at Princeton, New Jersey, which became the world’s first system to objectively and scientifically measure public and customer opinion. He was also the inventor of market research and the ultimate saviour of the customer.

The very existence of the Gallup Poll has changed forever the future of the human race. The Gallup Poll makes it increasingly difficult for individuals to claim “I-am-right”, to claim they alone “know what’s best” for the public now that accurate scientific measurement of the public/customer viewpoint is possible.

As inventor of market research and the Gallup Poll, Dr George Gallup has so empowered the public viewpoint that his invention may be the greatest act of democracy ever performed by any scientist.

His research covered the fields of: Health; Religion; Politics; Journalism; Advertising; Entertainment; Business; Education and Human Thinking. It can be said that no other person in history has ever had the opportunity to notice and record the views of so many humans on so many aspects of their existence, and in so many parts of their world!

A lesser known side of Dr. Gallup was his interest in humans and the factors which influence their opinions, attitudes, thinking and aspirations. He told me “teaching people to think for themselves was the most important thing in the world to do.”

Born in Jefferson, Iowa, in 1900, he attended the University of Iowa and spent ten years as a teacher there and at Drake, Northwestern, and Columbia universities. He had a strong interest in education and what could be done to improve it. He had more than ten honorary Doctorate Degrees from colleges and universities around the world. George died at his Switzerland home in 1984.